Today we have to answer the question of what is combustion? and define this term with the only opponent of understanding its meaning. As well as explain a little this chemical reaction produced by a variation in heat with respect to a flammable substance. Although as we progress in this article, we will explain in detail how this effect is generated and what are the elements that must be present for its birth.
As always, we will first elaborate a simple concept to understand and that explains in a general way what combustion is. Combustion is the name given to the chemical reaction produced by a fuel (The fuel can be any flammable material or substance). When subjected to high temperatures, that is to say that it suffers a sudden increase in heat. Oxygen being the main element that allows the development of this “burst” of energy that the fuel undergoes. Since without oxygen the oxidation process does not occur. Also known as “oxidising”.
Until now we can only stay with this, however, this chemical reaction can be extended and developed further. Since after this definition more doubts arise. What is fuel since it can be called that? What is heat? among other things that we will explain below…
What is flash point and what does it have to do with combustion?
As we mentioned before, for the chemical process called «Combustion» to take place. It is necessary to witness an increase in heat, which we can consider an increase in the temperature of the fuel. That particular temperature at which that explosion of heat energy occurs is known as the “ignition point” or also flash point. Those substances that can be considered combustible, as a general rule, have a very low ignition point, it does not take so much heat to produce combustion in them, hence they are considered flammable materials.
Due to its very low flash point, great attention and care is required when dealing with combustible substances such as gasoline or gas. It no longer takes more than a cigarette butt to cause a very dangerous chain reaction. And it is not necessary to define or talk about all the damage that a flare of fire produced by some fuel can cause. Well, the simple fact of trying to extinguish the candle will be a very complicated task.
What is fuel and what substance can be considered fuel?
Fuel is the name given to all material with a high degree of inflammation. Taking into account what we discussed above, it is nothing more than a low ignition point, which does not depend on a lot of candlelight to produce combustion. If we start to analyze and remember we can draw up a long list of flammable materials. However, below we will comment on the ones that we consider to be the most popular. Being considered by the majority, as the ideal fuels…
- The gas.
- The gas.
- Paper of all kinds.
- Leaves and dry plants (hence the occurrence of forest fires in natural areas).
- The diesel.
- Gunpowder.
- Charcoal.
These are just some of the various materials that can be considered susceptible to combustion. However, as we mentioned, there are many more, the way to identify them is “That have a low flash point.”
Let’s know what Heat is.
It is important to understand the difference between heat and temperature. Mainly because the belief is held that they are the same or synonymous. Which is not really the case, since heat is actually energy, energy which is projected due to a rise in temperature. This increase is carried out by the transformation of other energies that produce vibrations in the atoms. Making him perceive that increase in heat.
Taking that into account, we can realize that heat is energy, while temperature is nothing more than the way in which we measure that energy. Which is interpreted as; high temperature equals heat and low temperature equals no heat (popularly known as cold).
In this way we end this article on what combustion is and everything that this term entails. We hope that the information has been to your liking or useful and that despite being quite summarized, we wanted to be as specific as possible.